The last thing you expect when sailing the seas on a luxury cruise liner is to be targeted by Captain Hook! Well that's exactly what some UK cruisers experienced earlier this week.
Reports have emerged over the last couple of days that Fred Olsen Cruise liner 'Balmoral' was targeted by Pirates on the 3rd March 2009 in the waters off Somalia. According to the U.K publication Metro, the Balmoral reported "suspicious" activity after two small vesseles followed the ship in the Gulf of Aden.
A tannoy announcement was made in a nervous voice asking the 1000 passengers to remain below deck, while the ship steered away from the suspicious craft. Reports in the Sun suggested that gun fire had been heard and that some had watched through binoculars men with AK-47 rifles and even rocket launchers just 400 metres away. It remains to be seen if this report is true and predictably Fred Olsen have played down the whole situation on their website.
This is the latest in a number of pirate attacks which have taken place in these waters recently. In the last year 42 hijackings have taken place off the coast of Somalia with ship owners paying over £100million in ransom money.
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